As workers face slowing wage growth, a worsening cost-of-living crisis, and rising unemployment, the chief executives of top corporate retailers in the United States are reaping huge gains from the tax cuts that US President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans extended over the summer.

An analysis released Friday by the progressive advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) estimates that the CEOs of Amazon, Best Buy, Costco, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Target, TJX, and Walmart have collectively saved close to $35 million on their individual tax returns in the seven years the Trump tax cuts have been in effect.

Thanks to the Trump-GOP tax law, which took effect in 2018, the companies examined in the analysis paid a tax rate of just 17.5% between 2018 and 2024—roughly half what they paid prior to the law’s enactment.

“While at the same time prices have soared for consumers and retail workers remain stuck in low-wage jobs, big-store CEOs and shareholders have reaped higher profits and lower taxes,” David Kass, ATF’s executive director, said in a statement. “If we want a system that alleviates economic stress on average Americans instead of exacerbating it during the holiday season, we need to raise taxes on corporations and the rich, invest in workers and families with expanded public services.”

Workers at the major retailers haven’t fared nearly as well. ATF noted that “the average worker at the eight stores was paid less than $32,000 in 2024.”

“Amazon—the world’s largest retailer—refuses to even sit down with its employees who have formed a labor union for better pay, benefits, and working conditions,” the group observed. “If Lowe’s had used the nearly $50 billion it spent on stock buybacks over the seven-year period to instead raise employee wages, its workers would have each been paid almost $200,000 more.”

Across the US economy, workers are seeing wage growth stagnate amid elevated and still-rising prices, which are forcing many to skip meals and ration their medications to make ends meet.

The Labor Department said earlier this week that wage growth decelerated to 3.5% year over year—the slowest pace since before the Covid-19 pandemic. Unemployment, meanwhile, rose in November to the highest level in four years.

The ATF analysis came days after Trump delivered a lie-filled primetime speech defending his handling of the US economy as his approval ratings tanked, with American voters across party lines increasingly furious over the high costs of housing, groceries, healthcare, and other necessities.

During the speech, Trump vowed that Americans would soon “see the results of the largest tax cuts in American history.”

But the richest people in the country are set to reap disproportionate benefits from the tax cuts. As Bloomberg reported earlier this week, “Many filers—particularly those who could most use the financial boost—may soon be disappointed.”

“Wealthy taxpayers in high-tax states like California, New York, and New Jersey are the biggest winners,” the outlet noted.

A conservative Catholic was expelled from President Donald Trump’s so-called Religious Liberty Commission this week over remarks at a hearing on antisemitism in which she pushed back against those who conflate criticism of Israel and its genocidal war on Gaza with hatred of Jewish people.

Religious Liberty Commission Chair Dan Patrick, who is also Texas’ Republican lieutenant governor, announced Wednesday that Carrie Prejean Boller had been ousted from the panel, writing on X that “no member... has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue.”

“This is clearly, without question, what happened Monday in our hearing on antisemitism in America,” he claimed. “This was my decision.”

Patrick added that Trump “respects all faiths”—even though at least 13 of the commission’s remaining 15 members are Christian, only one is Jewish, and none are Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or other religions to which millions of Americans adhere. A coalition of faith groups this week filed a federal lawsuit over what one critic described as the commission’s rejection of “our nation’s religious diversity and prioritizing one narrow set of conservative ‘Judeo-Christian’ beliefs.”

Noting that Israeli forces have killed “tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza,” Prejean Boller asked panel participant and University of California Los Angeles law student Yitzchok Frankel, who is Jewish, “In a country built on religious liberty and the First Amendment, do you believe someone can stand firmly against antisemitism... and at the same time, condemn the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, or reject political Zionism, or not support the political state of Israel?”

“Or do you believe that speaking out about what many Americans view as genocide in Gaza should be treated as antisemitic?” added Prejean Boller, who also took aim at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, which has been widely condemned for conflating criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish bigotry.

Frankel replied “yes” to the assertion that anti-Zionism is antisemitic.

Prejean Boller also came under fire for wearing pins of US and Palestinian flags during Monday’s hearing.

“I wore an American flag pin next to a Palestinian flag as a moral statement of solidarity with civilians who are being bombed, displaced, and deliberately starved in Gaza,” Prejean Boller said Tuesday on X in response to calls for her resignation from the commission.

“I did this after watching many participants ignore, minimize, or outright deny what is plainly visible: a campaign of mass killing and starvation of a trapped population,” she continued. “Silence in the face of that is not religious liberty, it is moral complicity. My Christian faith calls on me to stand for those who are suffering [and] in need.”

“Forcing people to affirm Zionism as a condition of participation is not only wrong, it is directly contrary to religious freedom, especially on a body created to protect conscience,” Prejean Boller stressed. “As a Catholic, I have both a constitutional right and a God-given freedom of religion and conscience not to endorse a political ideology or a government that is carrying out mass civilian killing and starvation.”

Zionism is the movement for a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine—their ancestral birthplace—under the belief that God gave them the land. It has also been criticized as a settler-colonial and racist ideology, as in order to secure a Jewish homeland, Zionists have engaged in ethnic cleansing, occupation, invasions, and genocide against Palestinian Arabs.

Prejean Boller was Miss California in 2009 and Miss USA runner-up that same year. She launched her career as a Christian activist during the latter pageant after she answered a question about same-sex marriage by saying she opposed it. Then-businessman Trump owned most of Miss USA at the time and publicly supported Prejean Boller, saying “it wasn’t a bad answer.”

Since then, Prejean Boller has been known for her anti-LGBTQ+ statements and for paying parents and children for going without masks during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) commended Prejean Boller Wednesday “for using her position to oppose conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism and encourage solidarity between Muslims, Christians, and Jews,” calling her “one of a growing number of Americans, including political conservatives, who recognize that corrupted politicians have been trying to silence and smear Americans critical of the Israeli government under the guise of countering antisemitism.”

“We also condemn Texas Lt. Gov. Patrick’s baseless and predictable decision to remove her from the commission for refusing to conflate antisemitism with criticism of the Israel apartheid government,” CAIR added.

In her statement Tuesday, Prejean Boller said, “I will not be bullied.”

“I have the religious freedom to refuse support for a government that is bombing civilians and starving families in Gaza, and that does not make me an antisemite,” she insisted. “It makes me a pro-life Catholic and a free American who will not surrender religious liberty to political pressure.”

“Zionist supremacy has no place on an American religious liberty commission,” Prejean Boller added.

Nursing home firms gave President Donald Trump's super PAC $4.8M in Aug. and Sept. of 2025. Now, he's killing a rule that has been costing them cash.

According to The New York Times' Kenneth P. Vogel and Christina Jewett, the administration has placed a 10-year ban on a rule that "[requires] increased staffing levels in an effort to reduce neglect among residents."

The cash resulted in a lunch at Trump's golf club, where executives took their lobbying efforts directly to the president. Despite evidence showing staff shortages lead to injuries and deadly infections, they got their moratorium.

The industry thinks that the requirements dramatically increase costs and cut into profits.

"Starting in early August, the industry began making donations that over the course of weeks would eventually total nearly $4.8 million to MAGA Inc., a super PAC devoted to Mr. Trump and run by his allies," said the report.

Bill Weisberg, the CEO of Saber Healthcare Group, told the Times in a text message that the group "urged the president to formally repeal the harmful minimum staffing mandate, which would have surely forced providers throughout the country to close their doors to new residents — or possibly close their doors altogether."

A month later, the Department of Health and Human Services used donors' talking points to throw out the rule.

As Baby Boomers age, long-term care facilities are becoming increasingly important. Those who advocate for patients' rights argue that increased staff are desperately needed.

"By one estimate, the staffing rule could have saved 13,000 lives of nursing home residents per year," the report said. "It set off a tense debate over whether the industry, still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, could have found the funds to attract the staff needed to meet the new requirements. Research has suggested that the industry relies on a warren of corporations to conceal profits — profits that could have been used to improve care."

National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care director Lori Smetanka told the Times, “Residents are not getting the care they need. They’re dying from a lack of care.”

It's difficult to know the full impact the standard would have had because it was never fully enacted.

A "nonpartisan government analyst expected that state and federal governments would have kicked in an additional $22 billion over 10 years to help the industry boost staffing."

The report goes on to note that it's just one of many examples of lobbying the president directly through hefty donations. Some of the biggest accomplishments have come from donations resulting in pardons. The Wall Street Journal reported in December that the going rate is about $1 million.

After bruises and makeup popped up on President Donald Trump's hand again, questions resurfaced about his advanced age and concerns over his mental acuity.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday in an exclusive, that Trump revealed he hated the compression socks that would help fix his cankles problem and he really hates that he agreed to do an MRI sparking conversations about why a doctor would order such a thing.

“In retrospect, it’s too bad I took it because it gave them a little ammunition,” Trump said.

He revealed that the MRI wasn't of his brain, but of his abdominal area and his heart. He also said it wasn't an MRI at all, but a CT scan.

“It was less than that. It was a scan," Trump said.

“I would have been a lot better off if they didn’t, because the fact that I took it said, ‘Oh gee, is something wrong?’ Well, nothing’s wrong," Trump claimed.

The White House, at the time, called the scan “advanced imaging."

Trump, the oldest president in U.S. history, is showing his age in both public and private, those close to him told The Journal.

The Republican has a history of medical records that prompted experts to scoff. One doctor gave him a diagnosis of "bone spurs" when his draft number came up for the Vietnam War. The daughter of the doctor later said that her father did it as a favor to Trump's father.

As Trump entered the 2016 presidential race, he had his personal physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, pen a letter claiming his patient had “astonishingly excellent” laboratory test results with other tests showing “only positive results."

Bornstein later said that "there's nothing to share" on a regular basis about a president's health.

"Ronald Reagan had pre-senile dementia. I mean, seriously, did they share that one with you, or did Nancy just cover it up?" the doctor questioned in interview with STAT.

In another incident, Trump hid that he had COVID-19 and was so bad he was placed on supplemental oxygen. Former chief of staff Mark Meadows said that he was “consumed with fear that Trump might die.”

At least twice in the last few months, Trump appeared to have dozed off in public meetings when others were talking.

"Aides, donors and friends say they often have to speak loudly in meetings with the president because he strains to hear," The Journal continued. "Aside from golf, Trump doesn’t get regular exercise, and he is known to consume a diet heavy on salty and fatty foods, such as hamburgers and french fries."

Trump's records show he takes rosuvastatin and ezetimibe for cholesterol and uses mometasone cream for a skin condition. The cream is typically used for eczema. He takes the aspirin for “cardiac prevention" his records show.

Trump claimed he takes high doses of aspirin and that's why his hands bruise so easily. While doctors have told him to take less, he refused out of "superstition."

“They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart,” Trump said. “I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?”

The normal low dosage aspirin is about 81 milligrams, but Trump takes 325 milligrams per day. That's what so consistently causes his bruising, Trump claims. Still, he puts makeup on it to keep the bruises secret.

The CT scan, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella said, was “to definitively rule out any cardiovascular issues” and revealed no abnormalities.

Trump's physical signs of aging are so severe that Attorney General Pam Bondi "nicked" his delicate skin "with her ring while giving him a high-five at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee."

Trump also doesn't sleep well, sending aides messages "at 2 a.m. or later," the report said.

All of this comes after Trump spent years bashing former President Joe Biden as too old, feeble and "sleepy" to be president.

Trump swears he never fell asleep during the meetings, he was just resting his eyes.

“I’ll just close. It’s very relaxing to me,” Trump told the Journal, describing shutting his eyes. “Sometimes they’ll take a picture of me blinking, blinking, and they’ll catch me with the blink.”

Accusations he can't hear are false too, he said he only struggles "sometimes" because "there’s a lot of people talking.”

In the end, his health is perfect, he claims.

“Genetics are very important,” he said. “And I have very good genetics.”

Read the full report here.

Donald Trump's economy might be a boon for the wealthiest 10% of Americans, but conditions remain challenging for most others, especially those looking to find a job. According to a Christmas Eve report from Axios, this "labor market pinch" is now impacting one of the most seasonal jobs of them all: Santa Claus.

On Wednesday, Axios reported that the appetite for Santa Claus impersonators in the US has dried up significantly this year. While recent economic troubles are certainly to blame for some Americans cutting out St. Nick from their party budgets, some of the problem has also been "structural and long in the making."

Mitch Allen, operator of Hire Santa, a staffing agency for holly-jolly impersonators, gave the lay of the tough landscape in a statement to Axios.

"People are still having Christmas celebrations, but they are not having as big of an event at their home or office," he said. "They might not have entertainers."

Allen also spoke to NPR about the situation earlier in December, explaining that calls to his agency inquiring about Kris Kringle actors for "malls, schools, offices or a private event" were down 30% compared to the same time in 2024.

For mall Santas in particular, Axios noted, the issues run deeper than recent hardships. As more and more malls have closed up shop over the last few decades, there has naturally been a decline in the demand for impersonators to meet with children during mall shopping trips.

The lagging demand is also being worsened by an increase in the number of impersonators available. While the COVID-19 pandemic saw the number of Santa look-a-likes plummet, the category has rebounded since then, thanks to increased staffing efforts from places like Hire Santa.

"We've worked hard over the last five years to increase the number of Santas that we have in our database," Allen said

Axios also noted that broader demographic shifts in the US towards an older population, on average, have also contributed to there being more Santa Claus performers on the market than consumers need.